I have heard of friends who told me that they have met a “mini-joanne” somewhere out there. Once, Jane and Yihui told me that they have a friend from NUS who looks like me. I was wondering if the circle of friends were refering to the same person.
I have been curious about this “mini-joanne”. What is meant by “mini-joanne”? Is she a mini version of me? and in what ways?
Ironically, she has already presented herself around me for quite sometime just that I was slow to notice. She is Chew Yien, a bubbly sunshine girl. Like Jane and Yihui, Chew Yien is also one of the NUS Make It Real programme participants. Apart from mountaineering, she does adventure racing, I think she dives too (ok, I only know this much of her so far:)) She took part in the adventure races I organised, mainly Ace Adventure Challenge, Adventure Singapore, SAFRA AVventura Race…wow.. the lists never end! This little iron lady is very active in all the adventure activities! (ahem .. so am I!)
I finally took noticed of her at the SAFRA AVventura Race in 2006. She took part in the race, and I have captured her in my camera. When browsing through the photos, I spotted her and mistook her as me. I was curious about how I would appeared in the race as a participant when I was one of the race officials. At that instance, I fully agree that she resembles me in appearance to some extend, and I could finally put her face to “mini-joanne”!
Joanne or Chew Yien?
Well, as if looking alike is not enough, we do have the same interest, at least on mountain climbing & adventure racing. We have met in Lombok climbing the same mountain just weeks ago. Of course, we would not let the chance slip, we took a photo together.
Chew Yien and Joanne, photo courtesy of Melissa Mak
I must say, the above photo did not fully portray the resemblance in us. You probably need to see us in person. Anyway, Chew Yien was whining about being nicknamed as “mini-joanne” and that I should be nicknamed as “Big Chew Yien” instead. Hello girl, yours truly existed before you, so it’s obvious you know!
Have you ever wonder how two person can be alike when they have no connections in all ways other than sharing the same interest?
Honored as one of the Great Women of Our Time by Women’s Weekly, Joanne Soo is the owner of Ace Adventure, a company that conceptualises and organisesadventure sports events. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer with Ngee Ann Polytechnic and a Trainer with Republic Polytechnic.